You'll Be Surprised to Find Out America's Happiest State

Prediction: We'll all be moving to this sparsely populated state pretty soon.

No, it's not sunny, beachy California. In fact, not even close. The happiest state in the U.S., according to the just-released Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, is North Dakota, followed by South Dakota, Nebraska, and Minnesota. West Virginia and Kentucky had the lowest well-being scores  for the fifth year in a row.

The data was based on more than 178,000 interviews with Americans across all 50 states, conducted in 2013. The states were ranked based on these categories: life evaluation, emotional health, work environment, physical health, healthy behaviors, and access to basic necessities.

Some states scored really high in certain categories, though not overall: For example, Alaska had the highest emotional health score, while Vermont led all states in healthy behaviors for the second straight year. Massachusetts had the best basic necessities-access score, thanks to its highest national percentage of residents with health insurance. See here for the full list.

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